Hoping to raise the profile of contemporary Arab cinema in Britain, London's British Academy of Film and Television Arts has launched the first annual Arab Film Weekend to both accolades and criticism.

Screening eight films - all made in the past two years - from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria, the festival was arranged "to provide a showcase for the diversity and the breadth of creativity that exists within the Arab world", Ali Jaafar, one of the festival's programmers, said.

the_leander wrote:Hoping to raise the profile of contemporary Arab cinema in Britain, London's British Academy of Film and Television Arts has launched the first annual Arab Film Weekend to both accolades and criticism.

Screening eight films - all made in the past two years - from Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Morocco and Algeria, the festival was arranged "to provide a showcase for the diversity and the breadth of creativity that exists within the Arab world", Ali Jaafar, one of the festival's programmers, said.

Thanks Alan. If enough artists and writers take issue with their peers being bombed to fuckery by Blair, Bush & Israeli genocidal maniacs, then maybe this pointless war with the Middle East can be de-escalated and finally stopped...